It is understood that both sides will try to sign the 24-year-old on loan until the end of the season, when Benfica will give them an option to sign Rafa Silva permanently for a fee of around £26.5 million.

This would earn the Primeira Liga champions a rather impressive profit on a player who simply has not performed since arriving from Braga in the summer of 2016 for £14.5 million, making him the second most expensive player in Benfica’s history.

Silva, who has been nicknamed ‘the Portuguese Eden Hazard’ for his mesmeric close control, managed just two goals and four assists in his debut season for the Eagles. And his 2017/18 campaign has not gone much better, with just one league start to his name so far.

And that tally looks unlikely to increase with Benfica keen to find a club willing to take the expensive flop off their hands.

Everton and Leicester, then, have much to consider. Rafa Silva is a player with huge potential, emphasised by links with Liverpool and Manchester United as recently as 2016 via The Express.

Danny Owen

Daniel is a Journalist graduate from Leeds Trinity University and is generally obsessed with everything football related. Daniel watches everything from Augsburg in the Bundesliga to Vitesse in the Eredivisie with as much La Liga as possible thrown in for good measure.